Telling Young Children

[63WArmy]

My 6 year old knows. He is high functioning autism. He has yet to say anything about them but he has walked in on me getting ready for my day. I really don't think he cares. We are very up front and honest in our family. He wants to know about everything. He was in the hospital with me and he wanted to know about the catheter that was placed in me. He was looking at the bag and said "thats a lot of pee daddy. It's between the 800 and 1000" he wanted to see the catheter but I told him that was private.

Sorry to hear that your son has these difficulties... my two boys are special needs as well. My youngest has high functioning autism as well.

As I am sure you are aware as a special needs father, we have our ups and downs. The hardest thing is advocating for my child to get everything he needs in school. I even decided to go work for the school that he goes to. I am a radio call away.

[Scott902]

As I am sure you are aware as a special needs father, we have our ups and downs. The hardest thing is advocating for my child to get everything he needs in school. I even decided to go work for the school that he goes to. I am a radio call away.

That shows how much you care, which at times, is something not all parents do.
You just made a friend for life, telling that.

[MSUSpartan]

I can tell you my experience this far.

For background, I wet the bed, but don't have any daytime issues. I started wetting again about 4 years ago, and my son is 3. I basically never hid it, or brought it up. For the last 1.5 years my wife has worked full time, and as a grad student, I'm the primary caregiver. There have been days when my wife is gone early, and I don't have a chance to change before my son gets up. As you can't leave a toddler unattended, he's seen me change a number of times.

He potty trained with no problem. He recognizes that daddy wears diapers, and his preschool must have been talking about diapers being for babies, because he occasionally tells me, "no diapers, no pullups", but mostly he doesn't comment at all.

It hasn't really been an issue. As he gets older, I'm sure we'll have a conversation about which things are private. We have another one on the way, so I'll probably year that the same.

[Porkchop]

My 6 year old knows. He is high functioning autism. He has yet to say anything about them but he has walked in on me getting ready for my day. I really don't think he cares. We are very up front and honest in our family. He wants to know about everything. He was in the hospital with me and he wanted to know about the catheter that was placed in me. He was looking at the bag and said "thats a lot of pee daddy. It's between the 800 and 1000" he wanted to see the catheter but I told him that was private.

Sorry to hear that your son has these difficulties... my two boys are special needs as well. My youngest has high functioning autism as well.

As I am sure you are aware as a special needs father, we have our ups and downs. The hardest thing is advocating for my child to get everything he needs in school. I even decided to go work for the school that he goes to. I am a radio call away.

I was permanently disabled so I don't work but still find I spend at least 40 hours a week advocating for them at school. I feel like a pain in the arse, but my kids have to come first.

[WetDad]

... I spend at least 40 hours a week advocating for them at school. I feel like a pain in the arse, but my kids have to come first.

You're a parent- that's what you do. I still play advocate for my kids, and they are in high school and college.